The Tempest, saddly, is one of those classes that is a Fighter in every way except it doesn't suck . Your basic d10 hp/x2skill points, high BAB/Fort, low Reflex/Will, and a useful feat-like ability every level. It is nicely themed and tightly structured in effect, so I think it is probably best represented as a Specialty (where it can exist along side the Fighter Specialty on an even playing field).

TEMPESTYou are the whirlwind!• Bonus Feat: Two-Weapon Fighting• Melee Combat Expert: You are considered to have 2 additional Melee Combat feats for any ability based on the number of Melee combat feats you have.• Multi-dexterous: If you are wearing no armor or partial armor, you ignore the penalty from the Two-Weapon Fighting feat and the penalty from the Two-Weapon Style feat is reduced to –2.• Nimble Defense: If you are wearing no armor or partial armor, your base defense increases by 2.

Give that a 'spin' and see if you like it .

Stack that with Raptor and you have a reasonable "Dervish" [From complete warrior].

I'm gonna be kinda vague - but the things I've enjoyed most from Wizards in recient memory has been the ENTIRE Magic of Incarnum book, as well as the Book of Nine Swords. The latter suffered from some balance issues [it made fighters almost as good as casters, which in DND is massive], but solid theme's throughout, especially in regards to masters of a specific discipline. Worst thing about those two is I never really get to use them. [They're usually not on my DM's 'allowed books' list.]

I don't remember what it was called, but a friend of mine loved the prestige class from Tome & Blood that let you tap into the Far Realms and get fun stuff like a pseudonatrual familiar and turned you into an abberation with extra eyes and immunity to crits and the like...As for me? I've always had a soft spot for Rangers, Monks, and Druids. And put my vote in for an Arcane Archer class that doesn't bite.

Alienist from Complete Arcane does pseudonatural stuff currently, and I would love to see a good Arcane Archer. Though you could almost pull it off with just a channeler feat that lets you cast spells into arrows.

Alienist from Complete Arcane does pseudonatural stuff currently, and I would love to see a good Arcane Archer. Though you could almost pull it off with just a channeler feat that lets you cast spells into arrows.

The Master Inquisitive also looked interesting, but the game just never went anywhere where it would have been a practical class.

(click to show/hide)

Inquisitor [Master Class] As long as sentience has existed intelligent entities have sought answers, a search that only intensifies once they achieve sapience. Many have managed to refine this search to a keen science that peels back the layers of the world’s mysteries. Some have elevated it to an art. You, however, have learnt to embody it.Party Role: Specialist. Inquisitors are masters of divining truth from fantasy.

Class AbilitiesContinuity: Choose 3 class skills from other classes you have levels in to become Inquisitor class skills. Flawless Choice: Solving a mystery can sometimes call for dedicated commitment to a particular skill set. At 1st level, select any 2 class skills. Any time you fail a check with these two skills and don’t suffer an error, you still succeed as long as the check DC (or your opponent’s check result) is equal to or less than your class level + 20. If several grades of success are possible, you achieve only the lowest possible positive result. If you gain another Flawless ability from other classes that includes one of your chosen skills, your relevant class levels are added together before you add 20 to determine the DC against which you automatically succeed. At 4th level, you may select a 3rd class skill to be covered by this ability.Spill It: Maybe it’s because you’re unassuming or perhaps you trigger the memory of some childhood tyrant. At 1st level, once per session, you may spend an action die to cause everyone within CQB distance of you to find themselves incapable of committing any deliberate or intentional falsehood. Each potentially affected creature within the area of effect is allowed a single Will save against a DC equal to your Sense Motive bonus. Failure results in them answering without artifice. Success provides enough self awareness to choose to avoid answering questions to which they would normally respond with a lie, or to be evasive as long as they remain within the boundaries of the truth. Creatures who leave the area are free to speak as they choose, but must make another Will save if they again enter your CQB range. The effect is invoked as a free action and lasts until the end of the scene. If You Recall: At 2nd level, you gain the Photographic Memory feat.Discern Lies: You’re a human lie detector. At 3rd level, as a free action you may spend and roll an action die. For a number of minutes equal to the result you may concentrate on a single individual within CQB range — including their representation via surveillance device. During this time, you are able to discern if the subject is deliberately and knowingly committing a falsehood. This ability does not reveal the truth, uncover unintentional inaccuracies, or necessarily reveal evasions. It’s Elementary: At 4th level, you gain an iteration of the Sleuth class ability of this name.Harsh Light of Truth: Though you may not know the evil that lurks in the hearts of men, not much else is capable of escaping your gaze. At 5th level, a number of time per session equal to your Wisdom modifier you may spend and roll an action die. For a number of rounds equal to the result you see all things in the same location as you within your 1st visual range increment as they actually are, seeing through natural and artificial darkness, noticing the presence of secret doors hidden by magic or super-science, divining the exact location of creatures or objects under blur or displacement effects, seeing invisible creatures or objects normally, seeing through illusions, and discerning the presence of any polymorphed, changed, or transmuted things but not its original form. However, this ability in no way confers X-ray vision or its equivalent, nor does it negate the effects of concealment of any kind. Any disguised or hidden character must re-roll their check when this ability is used, the error range of the check being increased by your Wisdom modifier, but the new result only applies to the user of this ability.

The Tempest, saddly, is one of those classes that is a Fighter in every way except it doesn't suck . Your basic d10 hp/x2skill points, high BAB/Fort, low Reflex/Will, and a useful feat-like ability every level. It is nicely themed and tightly structured in effect, so I think it is probably best represented as a Specialty (where it can exist along side the Fighter Specialty on an even playing field).

I think that paragraph sums up the vast difference between early 3.x and Spycraft. Mechanically, D&D3 squeezes you for any possible benefit you could get from a class ability (while the most degenerate crunch gets a pass because of it's previous-edition-sacred-cow status.) Crafty design philosophy insists that a character get a visible benefit from every new class level, and what seems high powered in 3.x is down right de rigueur in Spycraft. One level of Spycraft crunch does more before breakfast than an entire D&D class does all day. This project is going to truncate 3.x crunch so fast it will think it's caught in a Mythbusters experiment.

Pardon me if it seems I'm getting awfully sloppy in Scott's lap, but I'm now one step closer to (my personal bastardization) of D&D Jayne Cobb in my preferred system.

Alienist from Complete Arcane does pseudonatural stuff currently, and I would love to see a good Arcane Archer. Though you could almost pull it off with just a channeler feat that lets you cast spells into arrows.

Alienist from Complete Arcane does pseudonatural stuff currently, and I would love to see a good Arcane Archer. Though you could almost pull it off with just a channeler feat that lets you cast spells into arrows.

or bullets?

You are going to love the Rune Knight. Doing a solid magic-using fighter type exert class in Fantasy Craft was a given, but Alex made it sing. ...And shoot, if you like.

I'm looking through the Book of Exalted Deeds and Champion of Gywnharwyf looks very very tasty: based of the Barbarian, it gets a base of 4 skill points a level, d12 HP, high BAB/Fort and low Ref/Will, at least 1 class ability per level and a small spell list.

Meanwhile the Swan Princess Swanmay is unremittingly cute and brings back fond memories of 1st edition's Monster Manual II while the My Little Pony unicorn-loving Beloved of Valaria is a class I think you really wouldn't want to play in the wrong company given how the restrictions on an otherwise butch class are worded.

Well, the only two I ever got to seriously play around with were the Bladesinger and the Shadow Dancer and I enjoyed both of those, but they're sorta trivial in Spycraft from what it looks like.

I'm eyeing the Bladesinger now. This looks like another decent candidate for a Master Class treatment. I think it's going to be funny how much I can cut down on the redundant text in this one .

Assuming Rune Knight does buffs and defense, Bladesinger as a Masterclass works.

As a side not, my GM didlift the Daggerspell Stance Spell (D&D had some sad kluges) for use by Bladesingers in his game, with a few tweaks.

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We can lick gravity, but sometimes the paperwork is overwhelming. - Werner von BraunRight now you have no idea how lucky you are that I am not a sociopath. - A sign seen above my desk.There's no upside in screwing with things you can't explain. - Captain Roy Montgomery

Hmmmmmmmm.Barbarian. Straight Barb: so honestly glorious and so perfectly flawed.

Lifewarden -Cleric, Druid, Shaman PrC from Magic of Arcanis.8/10 caster, 1/2 BAB, d6 HD, and yet...spend Turn attempts (of which LW get many) to ranged heal. Nuke undead with bonus Turning damage dice (up to a total 5d6 by LW 10), sacrifice spell levels to for more Turn damage as well as to blast past the effective level cap (a 20th level LW can dust a 33 HD Undead with a 9th level spell and a 22 on the chart), the ultimate class ability has the flavor sentence "you are the embodiment of the will of Belisarda" combined with permanent Death Ward that protects against any Death descriptor ability -psionic/magic/whatever as well as a high DC Disrupting unarmed touch AND *gasp* Weapon Focus: Unarmed or Finesse for free....Of course they're only availible to Elorii, of the 5 races of which 4 get a -2 to Con. Consequently the most effective countermeasure to a Lifewarden is just to beat them to death because the low BAB, weak HP, and lost spell levels tend to weaken them fatally just when the crisis hits.

None. Zero.So! One could have a 10th level Infernal Warrior with a 24 Strength...and no PrC access, no fracking POWER ATTACK or any other weapon feat. Wow. It's like an RP hook: mid-level crisis in mechanics, welcome to the first day of the rest of your life. Thanks for trying. Really. Tried so hard. Went so far. Failed so completely.

Now, I apologize for going off but I defend myself with this: these ARE my favorite 3.5 classes.

Shadow chimes in: Monk -balanced, effective, all around high performer in late game, shuts down casters, great saves, absolutely no need for a PrC.Bard: great healer, a selection of nasty unique spells, gigantic static bonuses from Inspire Courage, excellent skills, and skilled gained in RL combat defending your masculinity (my addendum).

I admit to having a fondness for shapechangers. I liked CW's Warshaper(great for my Doppelganger Bard), Shapeshifter from OA(10 levels of druid wild shape, no waiting), and Master of Many Forms from CA. I also liked the Psion(very versatile-six characters have completely different powers) and Psychic Warrior(psionic ranger-type). My only gripe there is that all other fighter-with-powers classes(ranger, paladin) use fighter BAB, but this doesn't, putting it with monk in "I don't know my role" land.

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I'm 6'5", dressed all in black leather, running through an empty parking lot at noon-and you still can't see me.

Beastmaster - but sadly, pretty much only as a 2-3 level cherry pick to give rangers an animal companion with actual bite, or for odd-hat builds, including an extended version of the halfling outrider on a velociraptor someone else here mentioned.

I like the concept behind Illumine Soul (Comp Psionic), but it suffers from the same issue the Soulknife base class has "I'm meant to be a main combatant and I'm saddled with a secondary combatant BAB", even though it's otherwise very nice in the d10 Hit Die and 4 SP/level categories.

From the same book, I also like the Ectopic Adept.

On the whole though, I've not been terribly impressed by prestige classes - they either tend to skew toward the lame, or the "seriously needs toning down" ends of the pool.

Most of my favourites come from the Eberron setting. There was a level of fluff in Eberron which was actually interesting to me, as opposed to the more classical settings like FR. That and they had Halflings riding dinosaurs

Bone Knight (feels more like a Master Class)Skymage (a little focussed on one aspect, but still interesting)

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